The invention relates to improvements in container destacking and restacking operations in poultry hatcheries or the like. The invention is concerned with the handling of standardized containers, such as trays, boxes, baskets and flats used in hatchery operations by robotic means. The robot is equipped with a specially configured end effector to grasp, move, tilt, manipulate and rotate the container as may be required by any particular operation. In the prior art, various destacking and restacking operations involving containers are carried out by special purpose dedicated machines and related equipment which are eliminated by the use of a robot according to this invention.
In general terms, the term destacking refers to the step wherein a container is removed from a like stack of containers and placed on a conveyor or other surface during poultry operations. The term restacking refers to the opposite step wherein a container is removed from a conveyor or other surface and placed on a like container in a stack. In some cases a box transport dolly may be used to hold the stack of containers. In other cases a rack or buggy with shelves could be used. The term poultry hatchery operations refers to the handling and processing of eggs or newly hatched birds such as chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, pheasant, quail, referred to herein as chicks.
To give several examples of destacking and restacking operations, live chicks are placed into containers called chick boxes which are moved by a conveyor to be vertically stacked and loaded onto a standardized box transport dolly for truck transport to the farm. A Smithway(R) dolly is one example of a suitable box transport dolly. In these operations, machine and related equipment known as a box turner, box restacker and a dolly loader is installed on the conveyor line to rotate, stack and load chick boxes onto the dolly.
The use of a robot enables the above equipment to be eliminated and all of the operations may be combined and performed by a single robot. The robot picks up the boxes from the end of the conveyor, rotates the box and stacks the box on the dolly all in one continuous motion.
In cases where two conveyor lines are used, the robot may be placed at the end between parallel conveyor lines eliminating the need to converge the conveyors into a single file upstream of the box turner, box restacker and dolly loader machines and related equipment. This simplifies and streamlines the conveyor line resulting in cost savings and minimal footprint for the equipment.
Another example relates to poultry hatchery operations that separate the live chicks from their shells. Hatch trays containing live chicks are delivered on dollies at one end of a conveyor line and are destacked by an destacking machine and placed on the conveyor for the separation step at a downstream location on the conveyor. Once the separation step is complete, the empty tray is conveyed to a washing station and finally conveyed to the end of the conveyor line. At this location, a tray restacker machine loads the empty trays onto dollies.
The use of a robot at each end of the conveyor line to destack and restack the trays eliminates the need for the specialized tray destacker and tray restacker machines and related equipment on the conveyor line. In cases, for example, where two lines are used, the use of a robot eliminates the need for two destackers and two restackers and may also eliminate the need for two dolly conveyors that feed the unloaded dolly to the end of the conveyor to be reused when the trays are restacked thereon.
Yet another example relates to egg transfer operations following, for example, vaccination. Typically the eggs are moved on the conveyor in containers called flats and must be transferred from the flats to trays which are stacked and loaded onto dollies for transport. The prior art egg transfer operations require the use of machines and related equipment known as a tray destacker, egg transfer machine, and tray restacker. All of these operations are simplified by the elimination of the above equipment by the use of a robot that destacks a tray and restacks the tray onto a dolly. In a second sequence the robot transfers the eggs into the tray. The destacking and restacking step is then repeated as required with reference to a restacked container and eggs are again transferred.
Yet another example prior to and post the vaccination process, relates to destacking and restacking flats with reference to a rack or buggy having shelves. In the prior art, destacking and restacking operations involving flat containers are carried out by special purpose dedicated machines and related equipment which are eliminated by the use of a robot according to this invention.
In most operations, the robot must be dimensionally referenced to a flat transport rack or buggy from which the containers are destacked or restacked thereon. Accordingly, a rack docking station is provided at a convenient location adjacent the robot for securing the dolly within. For these purposes, a rack is any wheeled shelved platform specially dimensioned to hold a plurality of flats stacked on shelves such as a Chickmaster Setter Rack. The docking station (not shown) is typically a tall box-like structure with a side opening to permit the entry of a rack. Once the dolly is inside the structure, hydraulic, pneumatic or electromechanical means may be used to clamp and secure the dolly in the dock with reference to a preselected reference point on the dock.